North Korea says rocket to America ‘inevitable’
US President Donald Trump’s insult, calling leader Kim Jong Un “rocket man”, makes “our rocket’s visit to the entire US mainland inevitable all the more”, North Korea’s foreign minister said.
Ri Yong Ho called the US leader “a mentally deranged person full of megalomania and complacency” with his finger on the “nuclear button” and declared: “None other than Trump himself is on a suicide mission.”
He told world leaders on Saturday: “In case innocent lives of the US are lost because of this suicide attack, Trump will be held totally responsible.”
Mr Ri’s highly anticipated speech to the General Assembly’s annual ministerial meeting fuelled the fiery rhetoric between the US president and North Korea’s young leader.
Mr Trump threatened in his speech to the 193-member world body on Tuesday, to “totally destroy” the North if provoked.
Kim, in an unusual direct statement to the world, responded by pledging to take “highest-level” action against the United States.
Mr Ri suggested to reporters on Friday in New York that the country could conduct an atmospheric hydrogen bomb test to fulfil Kim’s vows. But he did not make any mention of such a test on Saturday.
Mr Ri said: “Our national nuclear force is, to all intents and purposes, a war deterrent for putting an end to nuclear threat of the US and for preventing its military invasion, and our ultimate goal is to establish the balance of power with the US.”